Disentangling Websites, Freelancing, and My Blog Consulting Site

What do you do when your freelance work may or may not be something you want to show off to friends, prospective employers, etc? I’ve been facing that dilemma for a while now. On the one hand, I’m not ashamed of mrsmicah.com. But I don’t think prospective employers should read about the amount of debt we’re paying off or any of the other personal details which have come out on this site. Nor would I want all my coworkers and friends to have access to such a vault of information.

That’s fine, I can mention where appropriate that I have a blog but just not mention the address. The problem comes in when a relevant site is closely tied to a site you don’t want everyone to read. I’ve had a few people ask me for my business card, for example. Or for the address of my consulting website.

Since it’s http://hire.mrsmicah.com, I can presume that many of them will also visit mrsmicah.com itself. Moreover, the sites interlink and make it an even greater possibility.

The solution became clear, mrsmicah.com and Hire.mrsmicah.com had to “divorce.” Hire.mrsmicah.com has moved to BlogCrafted. She will now be going as “Ms. Crafty.” mrsmicah.com will continue sending alimony in the form of linking to articles I think readers here might like and just linking to the site in general.

However the new site will not link to mrsmicah.com and will delete all incoming trackbacks. (Hire.mrsmicah.com has been redirected to the new site.)

I’m still compiling a list of incoming links (not too many yet, fortunately) from sites which reference it as “Mrs. Micah.” I plan to e-mail the owners of these sites with information about the switch and the exact location of the link. I hope to make it very easy for them to swap out. Fortunately, all the links have the same form except for the .com. Same posts slugs, etc.

Obviously, someone dedicated to finding mrsmicah.com would be able to do so if they searched for incoming links, etc. My goal is simply to keep people from discovering it by asking “hmm, I wonder what’s at mrsmicah.com” or “where does this link go.”

This change will free me up to market my consulting completely separately from mrsmicah.com. So I can talk to friends, coworkers, and even prospective employers (this one particularly concerned me, since I’d like to be able to give proof of what I say I’ve been doing) about the business and start marketing offline.

If you’re trying to disentangle two sites, here are some things to look out for:

Links in the theme itself. I had a couple back to mrsmicah.com in my header and sidebar. And while most were relative links (i.e. just “/contact/” instead of http://blogcrafted.com/contact/) and would immediately transfer over, some links were to http://hire.financefreelancelife.com/etc.

Images. A few times I referenced things I’d done to mrsmicah.com and used screenshots. So I changed the text a bit and took some innocuous screenshots on another of my sites.

Downloads. It’s a good idea to include your blog’s information in any resources you create. But when you change urls, all that has to be changed. Especially if you’re trying not to have people connect the site to yours.

If you want to completely disentangle two sites (which I didn’t), then I also suggest buying separate hosting accounts for them, doing the above on both sites and contacting people who’ve connected one to another to ask for their help in either getting rid of the link or editing it. Not to mention editing all the inter-linking posts on the sites themselves.

Best way to keep two sites separate? Start thinking about the repercussions before you build the second site and inter-link. In my case, I chose hire.mrsmicah.com so that I’d actually go through with it. I was finding all sorts of domain-related reasons to stall. So I don’t regret my decision. But if I’d been able to come up with domain name back in June, things could have been a lot smoother.

What about you? Do you have something you’d share with more people if only it weren’t connected so strongly to your blog?

I just follow the rule that if I would be embarrassed by anyone reading what I write, I don’t publish it. You may be overreacting. You would be surprised by how little others care about things we say on blogs, unless we are talking openly about them.

I agree that MOST people don’t care in the sense meant here. But you never know with a future employer. The amount of debt is probably not an issue. However, I periodically read of people who had trouble because of what they published that got traced to them by prospective employers. It is better to play it safe.

Even if they didn’t care about what I wrote or what my personal finances were, I’m anonymous online specifically because I don’t want my real-life friends and acquaintances to know. And, you can’t ever be sure what someone might take into their heads to make an issue of, in the case of prospective employers.

I’m considering this dilemma myself. It’s unfortunate that I would like to be able to point up my blog to prospective employers but don’t feel comfortable sharing the details of my personal life.

Relax, chances are pretty good that whoever is doing the hiring is in much deeper debt. Your writing style, ability to communicate clearly and ability to connect with your readers is much more important. You shouldn’t be afraid to be yourself. going strictly by the blog you’ve got a lot more talent and intelligence to show than anything written here that would cause an employer to pause on hiring you.
Best of luck. DSTSS.

In the whole world, only about 4 people know my blogging identity and none of them are related to me. The compartmentalising that I do sometimes drives me mad. I’d love to share links that I find, but I’m really cautious about it. I’d also like to demonstrate my webbing skills to offline people, but can’t.

Everyone knows that I play the oboe. Sometimes, I have to remember that doesn’t mean I want other oboe players to know about everything.

I think it’s a good idea to divorce blogcrafty and mrs.micah because it will stop you becoming inhibited on mrs. micah.

I think it’s a good idea as well. People at work don’t know about my blog, and I wouldn’t show it to prospective employers. That said, I also don’t write anything on my blog that we be harmful if someone at work DID find my blog. You strike a good balance between keeping it real and revealing too much. I know that I’ll enjoy reading both blogs!

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